WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: If not the spawning pool for grunge, at least one of the catalysts.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: “Eye Flys” opens up this, the first full length, and the true Melvins spirit is imbued in this track. A simple, slow, repetitive bass line, drums sound on the 2 and 4, and a feedback wall of guitar that builds up into an actual riff and then a song 4 ½ minutes in, and then vocals (slowly yawping at that), and it’s over less than two minutes after the song really kinda starts. It’s the Melvins, man. They don’t get anywhere and their not in a hurry.

There are a lot of tracks here. Many are short – under a minute even. Many are slow, a slowly building wall of noise but sometimes they have get up and go. Do they make sense? Can you understand them? Who cares?

This probably is the best thing to check out to wonder why they became such a beloved band in the grunge scene. It’s pretty scuzzy, and sometimes brilliant.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: They appropriated “Leeech” from Green River, since that band never played it.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: Yes, so many bonus tracks from demos on the CD version.

GRADE: B+: By no means is it flawless – but the flaws are pretty much the reason to listen to it.

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: If you were in the basement of a Melvins fan, yeah, you may have. Otherwise, hell no.

LINEUP: Buzz Osborne, Matt Lukin, Dale Crover

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Influential and noisy Pacific Northwest sludge band’s first recordings to see the light of day.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Despite the Melvins’ reputation for playing at a sloth-like pace, the songs here actually move at a realistic tempo. What is different is that the production is, well, somewhat compromised, as in, distorted and really, really loud.

The cuts here are vital really for historical purposes. They’re not going to convert anyone to being a Melvins fan, though by this time they were sucking the members of Nirvana into their orbit. I exiled a bunch from the latest incarnation as the demo versions were just, well, even louder and more production-addled.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: The various titles were based on the original EP, then the CD release (and a new EP release with took two songs from the CD away), and finally the current release with demos and outtakes.